Oberholtzer back up from Class AAA to make Saturday start

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Astros lefthander Brett Oberholtzer, who was sent back down to Class AAA Oklahoma City after losing against the Angels on July 3, will continue his shuttle between Houston and OKC to start Saturday against the Red Sox. He will be called up from OKC to start in place of righthander Collin McHugh, who exited his start against the Angels after four innings last Sunday with a right middle fingernail avulsion.

The Astros will announce a corresponding roster move Saturday.

Oberholtzer, who was on the opening day rotation, had been called up two previous times since he was initially demoted for the first time this season on May 8. He is 2-7 with a 4.66 ERA over 11 starts.

“He’s done a tremendous job,” Bo Porter said of Oberholtzer. “He has the right mindset that comes with being able to understand where we are as a team and the times we’ve needed to plug him in. I told him he’s saved us a lot of times where we needed to bring that guy up just to keep our bullpen intact in the condition that it was in.

“He’s come up and given us quality start after quality start and he understands why we want to keep him build up just in case we have a spot open in our rotation we have a guy that’s built up and ready to go.”

Barring another setback, McHugh will be plugged back into the rotation to start the fourth game after the All-Star break.

“It’s one of those things that looking at the fact that we have the All-Star game next week this would be (McHugh’s) last start before the All-Star break,” Porter said. “We would rather just give the finger all of the time in which he will have before he would make his first start, which would be after the All-Star break. We’re going to lean on the side of caution.”